Rippler by Cindy Read Free Book Online

nowhere, like someone started a movie in my head, I saw a crisp image—a dark-featured girl with her hands on her hips. She looked thirteen or fourteen, and she sure seemed angry. She pointed, shouting, towards a receding ambulance. I couldn’t hear what she said.
    The image faded, I solidified, and Mickie shrieked.

    Chapter Five
    INSUBSTANTIAL
    For a moment we sat without words as Mickie processed what her eyes had just
    registered.
    “Impossible,” she whispered. Then, her voice low and icy, she asked, “What have you done, Will?”
    “Nothing.”
    “She can ripple Will.” Her tone was venomous.
    “Yeah, no kidding?” He continued sorting rocks.
    Angry fire danced in her eyes and I was grateful it was directed at her brother. “You swore, Will. You swore an oath on our mother’s grave.”
    I didn’t know people still did that.
    “You’re making an assumption without checking your facts,” Will said.
    “The hell I am! I just saw her ripple, and you don’t so much as blink an eye? I think I have all the evidence I need to understand what’s going on here.”
    “I didn’t tell her.”
    “Oh, she just figured out you have Rippler’s Syndrome all by herself?” Mickie asked.
    “Oh, I get it. You didn’t tell her. You showed her. That’s still breaking your promise. God, Will, what were you thinking?”
    I stared from Will to Mick and back again. Will had Rippler’s Syndrome? And he hadn’t let on?
    Furious, I shouted, “Why didn’t you tell me?” and Will, at almost the same time, shouted at his sister, “I said I didn’t tell her and I meant it. But you just took care of that, didn’t you?”
    “What?” Mickie and I asked the question together.
    Both siblings ignored me.
    Will’s dark gaze matched his sister’s. “You heard me the first time.”
    Shock registered on Mickie’s face. It looked like Will was the only person not getting a major reveal today, because if I understood right, Will had the same condition I did, only he’d kept it a secret from me because of an oath his sister had forced him to swear on their dead mom’s grave. Except now, she’d blown it.
    Will spoke. “This has nothing to do with you, Mickie.”
    “Nothing to do with me? This has everything to do with me. You’re my responsibility!”
    “I don’t need you to take care of me, Mick. I’m not a child anymore.”
    “When are you going to grow up, Will?”
    They were both silent. I spoke quietly, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
    “I made a promise,” he said.
    Mickie continued as though I hadn’t spoken. “I made a promise, Will: I told Mom I’d watch out for you!” Her voice was tight and pinched, but she refused to give in to tears. “How am I supposed to take care of you if you can’t even keep this a secret?”
    “I’m not the one who let the cat out of the bag, Mick. And believe me, Sam’s perfectly aware of what could happen if someone finds out.”
    “You’ve told her what could happen? Oh, that’s just great.” She threw her hands up.
    “Great. You never think through the consequences of your actions, do you?”
    “I trust her,” Will said, his voice quiet and tense.

    “Well, that’s a damn good thing, isn’t it? Seeing as how she’s holding our lives in her hands at this moment.” Mickie struggled to maintain her composure, face pale with anger.
    Will’s gaze was cold and hard, unfathomable.
    Then Mickie spoke softly. “You need to recognize there are consequences for every
    action you take, Will.”
    “Maybe I’m sick and tired of us not taking action,” Will said.
    “Do you want people to find you? Who should we tell first? Do you want the
    experimental physicists to know? The CIA? How about the mystery assassins who took out Pfeffer? Our dad maybe? There’s an idea—Dad could just sell you to the highest bidder.”
    Will exploded. “Give it a friggin’ rest, Mick!”
    Mickie sat frozen, gazing unseeing across the creek. “I need some time. Meet me